anyway it appears in the 1906 print of the book patriotic poems of new jersey, which the top mmxxii tiger will get (shown below).

in this book is some interesting backstory on the song and it’s author:

while an undergraduate of princeton university, (the rev.) harlan page peck, class of 1862, wrote nearly thirty metrical compositions which appeared in the nassau literary magazine, including the '62 class ode and the '62 class poem. in the winter of 1858-59, this magazine offered a prize for a college song, and in the number for march, 1859, appeared old nassau, the song that won the prize, just as it is sung to-day except that the word "harp" in the first verse has been changed to "heart. ' it was sung at first to the air of auld lang syne, but this was found un- suitable; so (the rev.) william c. stitt, class of 1857, then a student at the theological seminary, one morning in the spring of 1859, went to the house of mr. langlotz (who was at that time an instructor in music in princeton), and told him to write a new piece of music for old nassau and stood over him until he did it. the words and music appeared the same spring in songs of old nassau, the first book of princeton songs and the prototype of the popular and widely known carmina princetonia.

except it’s not as it’s sung to-day, today, because it was sexist. here’s the full poem:

OLD NASSAU

Tune every heart and every voice,
Bid every care withdraw;
Let all with one accord rejoice,
In praise of old Nassau.

In praise of old Nassau, my boys,
Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah !
Her sons will give, while they shall live,
Three cheers for old Nassau !

Let music rule the fleeting hour, —
Her mantle round us draw;
And thrill each heart with all her power,
In praise of old Nassau.
In praise of old Nassau, etc.

Their sheen forever shall impart
A zeal beyond compare,
And fire each ardent, youthful heart
To boldly do and dare.
To boldly do and dare, etc.

No flowery chaplet would we twine
To wither and decay;
The gems that sparkle in her crown
Shall never pass away.
Shall never pass away, etc.

And when these halls in dust are laid,
With reverence and awe,
Another throng shall breathe our song,
In praise of old Nassau.
In praise of old Nassau, etc.

Till then with joy our songs we'll bring,
And while a breath we draw,
We'll all unite to shout and sing,
Long life to old Nassau!
Long life to old Nassau, etc.

in 1987 there was some controversy over whether some of those lyrics needed change. it was covered by the new york times.

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/22/nyregion/is-old-nassau-sexist-princeton-examines-its-school-song.html

and they changed some of the lyrics. the end! that’s about all i had on that, it’s interesting though.

the art is sick (see below). you get some swag, sure. we aim to get that to everyone before reunions. you graciously fund some fun writing here on mirror. and we have the start of a princeton web3(/irl?) community, with lots of tricks and treats up our sleeve.

so grab a tiger below

edition://0xbaF3eEF61eb6d132A4B04Ea0F184A4405787aBe7?editionId=0

^^ vrii tiger ^^

comes with

• custom vrii tiger embroidered shirt or vrii tiger embroidered dad hat

• vrii tumbler

• top vrii tiger contributor gets a 1923 copy of poems of new jersey

edition://0x70A45dBb0024eabd7b33a70079D4Ab9A47A1538c?editionId=0

^^ mmxxii tiger ^^

comes with

• custom mmxxii tiger embroidered shirt or mmxxii tiger embroidered dad hat

• vrii tumbler

• top mmxxii tiger contributor gets a 1906 copy of patriotic poems of new jersey

a newsreel runs before their film and informs them that government was planning an early payment of $2bn in bonus money to wwi veterans (yes, the wwi that ended in 1918). money that was to be paid to those veterans in 1945. apparently, the american legion and veterans of foreign wars lobbied their way to this windfall of $500 max (which is about $8,000 in today money. but maybe not tmrw money. inflation amirite?)

anyway, lewis and urban are disgusted. the audacity of congress to just throw $2billys at some old heads in the middle of the grreeeeaaatttt depression? so they go back to campus and start up:

the veterans of future wars

the vfw demanded roughly $2,400 “war bonuses” to every american man of military age. the idea was that war was inevitable, and since men of military age will undoubtably be involved in that next war, they should get their bonuses while they’re still alive to spend the money.

vfw promo video

and this parody organization caught fire. it reportedly spread to spread to campuses across the nation.

... the VFW struck a nerve with college students nationwide. The University of Chicago’s branch promised “to make the world safe for hypocrisy.” Boston University’s theology students offered to preach the military funerals of the VFW in advance. Not to be left out, the women of Vassar organized as the Future Gold Star Mothers Association (the American Gold Star Mothers had been founded to provide for women who had lost a husband or son in World War I). Vassar’s president was outraged, and in response they changed their name to the Home Fire Division of the Veterans of Future Wars.

there were reportedly 60,000 members of vfw on college campuses across the country. this delightful article about the whole affair is fun. and at the bottom, there is a rundown of what these pranksters ended up doing after princeton. which for all of them included, with only one exception, fighting in wwii a few years later.

which of course, would lead to three reunions cancellations, but then, of course, the victory reunion.

45 days, btw

vrii

In 1933, a magazine wrote asking Robeson for the correct pronunciation of his last name:

“The name is: Robeson: Robe as in the ordinary word, robe, meaning dress, and son pronounced like the word son, meaning a male child,” he explained. “The name is pronounced in two syllables only: Robe-son.”

paul was born to william drew robeson. william, you see, was born into slavery in 1844 but escaped to pennsylvania (a free state, at the time) when he was 15 via the underground railroad. then we he was 16, he joined the union army to fight against slavery. after that, he got a degree in theology, had 7 kids, then landed the gig as the minister of the witherspoon street presbyterian church (which is now nassau presbyterian church — the one with the white columns between rocky and nassau hall. you've seen it) in 1880.

and when he was ousted from that position in 1901 — for refusing to stop speaking out about social injustice — he didn’t jump up on the stage, cock back, and will smith a bitch. no.

apparently, in his last remarks to his congregation, he told them not to be discouraged, or to think their past work in vein, and generally tried to spread some love.

he’s buried in princeton cemetery next to his wife.

and has now joined the exclusive vrii ☠️ power rankings ☠️

on the other hand, he did rally more than half his living classmates around a cause. but as f. scott fitzgerald ‘17 allegedly said, show me a hero and i’ll write you a tragedy.

the cause was trying to force his resignation.

but burr committed (maybe) treason. what cruz did was just borderline, i suppose. treason-adjacent. i suppose it’s like trying to figure out who was more dominant, wilt chamberlain and shaquille o’neal. shaq moved 7-footers around like they were his children. but wilt did score 100 points on darrall imhoff (head up, champ).

anywho, giving cruz a 6.66 on the suck scale. 🏆

i must admit that i haven’t thought much about aaron burr. but mark f. bernstein ‘83 made the case that mr. burr 1772 deserves some thinking ‘bout.

his story is pretty interesting. he got into princeton at 13 years old and graduated at 15. went on to commit some bravery and heroism during the revolutionary war, had a streaky political career, obviously shot alexander hamilton (america’s first treasury secretary), then later maybe committed treason? after which he exiled himself to europe only to come back to nyc and eventually die in a boarding house, handicapped by a stroke, and with close-to if not less-than zero dollars to his name.

now his name is being dragged up and down broadway centuries later. unreal.

anyway there’s probably more to unpack here but let’s skip that and rate him a 3.4 on a scale from (1) being mildly annoying to (5) being highly problematic energy vampire. if you saw burr at a party you’d be like “damn” but you’d probably stay.

is he worse than ted cruz?

62 days

vrii mmxxii

they contend that they are the reason the golf carts at reunions now feature locks and chains. because they engaged in behavior too despicable to recall. they promise to do better.

we’ll know them only as whig and clio. of the matter, they say:

clio: we apologize most to the golf cart manager. a kind man.

whig: we have undeniably left our mark on campus and university culture, though. i’m not saying we’re woodrow wilson, but …

clio: who?

you’re one of a handful of people with one of these new-fangled television sets. voodoo, some say. nonsense, others still.

it sits atop a night-turned-tv stand like a microwave. your family is huddled around, staring into. The signal arrives from a transmitter on top of the empire state building. it’s not very good.

you can’t see the ball. or the players. or much of the field, actually. it looks a bit like an ant farm, but more frustrating, because you’re trying to watch princeton play columbia in the first ever televised baseball game (and possibly the first televised sporting event, but 2 lazy 2 verify). despite the terrible quality, it was the most watched baseball game in television history, for a time.

luckily, the sound comes in loud and clear. And after the 10th inning ends, you rejoice as the tigers top the lions, 2-1.

tigers > lions

rarely, if ever, did i inform the usps or any other governmental entity of my relocation. i wanted to, but i never learned to navigate these robust systems with the grace of my grandparents. when they went to the dmv ... it was art. it was … mike tyson in the boxing ring. it was … lyndon b. johnson making deals before my eyes when grandma hit the post office.

when i go, i move like mike jordan, on a baseball pitch.

plus i like to stay agile. addresses make ya’ stiff. know what i mean?

at yet, the paw knows where i am. often before i do. i swear on einstein’s legacy there was this one time: i’m moving into a brand new living situation. i get to my room and there it is. sitting on my nightstand, addressed flawlessly:

mr [name redacted] ‘01 the cupboard under the stairs 4 privet drive little whinging surrey

i can duck almost everything else. but not the paw. who is behind this? whoever you are, if you are reading this, i would like to say …

thank you.

i always save my paws, just in case. grammy would approve 👐

look at this one full sentence from his wikipedia page.

he is best known for the lambda calculus, church–turing thesis, proving the unsolvability of the entscheidungsproblem, frege–church ontology, and the church–rosser theorem.

i said look at it, not read it. especially not out loud. i should have said this earlier, but, i don’t know what those words do. i wouldn’t chance it.

though, it checks out that the entscheidungsproblem turned out to be unsolvable. i could’ve taken one look at it and told you that. anyway, thanks to dr. church we all can stop trying.

just one thing … if he proved a problem is unsolvable, did he not then solve that problem? solve means to “find an answer to, explanation for, or means of effectively dealing with (a problem or mystery).” giving up is an effective means to deal with a problem. i’ve also been saying that for years.

decide for yourself. but in my book, this man solved an unsolvable problem. he’s in the power rankings.

mmxxii

- 70 days -

that means if a roaring tiger was standing on nassau hall, you would hear it on route one. you would hear it on princeton battlefield. you would even hear it well past the official end of the earth; hoagie haven.

… 72 days …

“Here we were taught by men and gothic towers democracy and faith and righteousness and love of unseen things that do not die.”

it’s a piece of a poem by h.e. mierow ‘14. here’s the rest of it:

Princeton

Changed with the passing years, yet still the same, Old Princeton standing lonely on the hill, If lonely it can be, about whose walls Cluster undying memories of men!

I mount the winding road, while overhead Hangs in a starlit sky the silent moon; The welcome chill of autumn fills the air; Lofty, majestic, gray, serene and still, A Gothic tower rises through the night; Behind, the campus lies with whispering elms.

This quiet, little corner of the world, With time-worn buildings, and its memories Of honored men who labored here a while, Has now become, beneath the hand of Time, A silent window of Eternity, Through which men see the Universal shine, Transmuting common things with its still touch Until they gleam like stars of changeless truth.

Here we were taught by men and Gothic towers Democracy and faith and righteousness And love of unseen things that do not die.

74 days …

… in the spring of 1946, more than 10,000 alumni returned to celebrate what was called the victory reunion, a catch-up for all of the classes that had missed their major (five-year) reunions during the moratorium ... | (a brief history of reunions, dan white ‘65)

three reunions were cancelled during wwii, so cats who missed their 5th all came back in ‘46. and next thing you know, boom! you have the first “modern” reunion.

reunions, as we know them, came from a lack of reunions. i will be darned. and while it was probably closer to 7,000 people, not 10,000, that makes a point of its own. whatever happens this may, will be exaggerated for decades to come.

i actually think what was cool about the original victory reunions ‘46 was that (it seems) revelers took time to reflect on the toll of the war. felt it, even. this paw article says, given postwar shortages, it wasn’t easy coming to the victory reunion, and the university could provide only a single blanket to alumni staying in the dorms.

that supply chain, amirite?

vrii mmxxii